Samson's Jawbone

Samson's Jawbone: GOP Can Learn from Trump : Earlier in the week Presidential candidate Donald Trump made some statements some interpreted as disparaging to Senator John Mc Cain. Many ...

Earlier in the week Presidential candidate Donald Trump made some statements some interpreted as disparaging to Senator John Mc Cain. Many pundits predicted that his groundswell of support would vanish, that he had taken his bellicosity too far. Instead, his popularity seems to have increased. The next day, in the home state of fellow Presidential Candidate Lindsey Graham, Trump called him an "idiot," decried that he was "zero" in the poles, then red aloud his personal cell phone number. Graham's home state audience seemed to love it. Now today the Republican establishment is meeting to see how they can ameliorate the damage Trump has supposedly done to the party. There hasn't been any votes casts, and yet some Republicans see Trump as a danger to the party. What some Republicans fail to understand is that Trump has not damaged the party at all, rather the party has wounded the constituency to whom Trump appeals. I am not a Trump supporter. I am a

Country and western singing icon and outspoken Christian Cary Underwood was recently criticized in on-line posts for her support of gay marriage. In an interview she said "any two people who love each other ought to be able to get married." While I disagree with Miss Underwood, I can appreciate how she comes to her conclusion. The church has neglected to teach a biblical view of human sexuality and marriage, and many millennial Christians would say much the same thing if asked. One of the reasons the courts have opened the way for gay marriage is that the Christian church has failed to model or to teach biblical marriage.  Some churches have even asserted that loving people the way Christ loves requires that we open the way for gays to marry. The Roman Catholic Church is considering a more open position on homosexuality. Miss Underwood's statement reveals a  misunderstanding of  the role of love and romance in marriage. The church needs to distinguish between Christi...

Do you remember when Congressman Dennis Kucinich and others were opposing the Patriot Act as a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution? They argued that the government was becoming oppressive by listening to phone calls coming from overseas cell phones, or looking at what books had been checked out of a library without a warrant. They argued we were using fear as a reason to violate our own values and the Fourth Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or Affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person and things to be seized." Where is Congressman Kucinich and Senator Reid, those defenders of our liberty, when the TSA searches every person going on to a civilian aircraft for no reason without probable cause? Why are they quiet...

I have boys, so we never followed who Ms America or Ms USA was or what they did. We were not interested. But I have heard that Miss California was runner-up for Miss USA this year. She apparently came in second for having an opinion that was unpopular with some judges. In other words, to be a beautiful and successful role model in our culture one now has to "toe the party-line." As I understand what happened, part of the contest includes an interview, and she was asked her opinion of "gay marriage." She said she thought marriage was between "a man and a woman" [Isn't this the way it has been since the dawn of civilization?] Two judges disagreed and disqualified her. One even excoriated her on his blog. One judge later said that she was "shocked that Miss California had that opinion." I found her shock, shocking. The people of the state the woman represented, the state of California, have overwhelmingly voted against gay marriage. As a mat...

I have some good memories from my job as a customer service representative in an inbound telephone call center. Some of those good memories are of some hilarious conversations I had with customers: After answering a call  with our specified company greeting the customer said, "Did you say your name was Blair?" "No sir, I said it was Glenn." "Oh, okay..., Blair." "No sir, my name is ... Glenn!" "Oh... I was sure you said it was... Blair!... Spell your name for me, please?" "Okay sir. It is Glenn....  G... - L... - E ...- N... - N!" " Oh, I was right. okay, thank you, Blair." For the six years that I worked for that company, many of my colleagues there called me, "Blair." It gave us all a good laugh, and besides I have been called worse: "dude," for example. Call me "Blair" if you would like, just please never call me "dude."  A person'...